Translation of Chapter Titles from the Perspective of Sociosemiotics

Mei DONG, Yushan ZHAO

Abstract

A chapter title as the title for every chapter in a chapter novel is to introduce the whole chapter. A research will be made on the translation techniques of chapter title from the perspective of Sociosemiotics. Sociosemiotics as an interdisciplinary science is dedicated to the research on the relationship between systems of signs and human society. Moreover, Sociosemiotics views language as the most comprehensive system of signs in the human society. Compared with other linguistic theories, Sociosemiotics pays more attention to the application of symbolic systems in society. In the practical translation process, translators should place linguistic signs in the social situation besides the infl uence of internal factors, thus facilitating a more comprehensive research. The paper integrates Sociosemiotics -- three meanings proposed by Morris Charles, namely, referential meaning, linguistic meaning and pragmatic meaning) into the chapter title translation firstly by taking the chapter titles of four Chinese classic novels as examples to explore the translation techniques of chapter titles, and comes to the conclusion: translation techniques such as literal translation, addition and substitution are favorable to transfer referential meaning; translation technique such as conversion is more appropriate to transfer linguistic meaning; as for pragmatic meaning, the technique of free translation is an ideal choice.

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